A computer user interface may display several windows or views simultaneously on a computer display screen. Each window may contain one or more work areas. A user working in a work area of a first window may decide to create additional space for other views on the display screen by minimizing or reducing the size of the first window. Rather than minimizing the window itself, the user may decide to minimize a work area within a window, creating additional space within the window for other work areas.
A minimization function, at the direction of a user interface program, makes a window or work area (hereafter referred to as an entity) smaller by hiding all or part of the entity, and making the display space previously occupied by the entity available for other work areas or views.
There are several examples of minimization functions. One example is when a user selects a minimize button from a menu bar or title bar of a window, and the window is minimized and represented as a button with a label, located in a taskbar at the bottom of the display screen. In another example, a minimized work area may be represented as a labeled icon with buttons for restoring, maximizing, or closing the minimized work area.
In either example, if the user later wishes to work with the minimized entity, the user will first have to restore or maximize the minimized entity, potentially obscuring all or part of other windows or work areas on the display screen. The extra step of restoring or maximizing the minimized entity is necessary because the representation of the minimized entity lacks the context of the work area information and the context-related functionality.